NEW: MER 317, "Reconstruction and Ruin"

Dear Friends and Comrades, Today we are releasing our Winter 2025 issue of Middle East Report, “Reconstruction and Ruin.” This issue includes essays, dispatches and interviews that offer a grounded examination of the impact of war and reconstruction efforts (or lack thereof) on everyday people across the region. From Gaza

James Ryan • 2 min read

Building from Scrap, Building Through Crisis

On Umut Kuruüzüm’s materialist ethnography of war and reconstruction, 'Building from Scrap: War, Recycling, and Labor in Iraqi Kurdistan.'

Mujge Küçükkeleş • 11 min read

Palestinians in Lebanon

Disarming the Camps—Palestinian Factions and the Limits of Lebanese Sovereignty

As Lebanon moves to disarm Palestinian camps under intense geopolitical pressure, long-standing factional rivalries, unresolved refugee rights and Israel’s continued military presence expose the limits of state sovereignty.

Erling Lorentzen Sogge • 13 min read

Mapping Destruction—A Conversation with Jamon Van Den Hoek of Conflict Ecology

Changing scales of conflict and advances in satellite imagery are reshaping how damage is assessed.

Jamon Van Den Hoek, Deen Sharp • 13 min read

Repair Amid Ongoing Ruination—Rebuilding Dahiyeh Once More

Standing beside a destroyed building in Dahiyeh in September 2025, a fruit seller said to me, “I want to bring Naim Qassem [Hizballah’s new secretary general] here. I want to show him the damage. Our people need to do better.” He knew that, like him, I was Shia, and

Iman Ali • 11 min read

The Struggle for the City—Urban Recovery and Dispossession in Mosul and Damascus

A walk through the old city of Mosul, Iraq, reveals an urban landscape still scarred by the violence of war and transfigured by ongoing reconstruction. Rubble-lined narrow streets give way to half-rebuilt homes and scaffolded storefronts, as merchants return and daily life resumes amid the heavy hum of generators and

Craig Larkin • 14 min read